Missing EU already?Of course, the major issue dominating policy in the UK this year has been Brexit. In July, we reviewed a new book by Professor Janet Morphet which assessed the UK’s future outside the European Union. While not claiming to have all the answers, the book provides a framework for making sure the right questions are asked during the negotiation period and beyond.

One important consideration concerning Brexit is its potential impact on science, technology and innovation. In August, we noted that, while the UK government has been making efforts to lessen the concerns of researchers, anxieties remain about funding and the status of EU nationals currently working in science and technology roles in the UK.

Home thoughts, from home and abroadThroughout the year, we’ve been looking at the UK’s chronic housing crisis. In May, we considered the potential for prefabricated housing to address housing shortages, while in August, we looked at the barriers facing older people looking to downsize from larger homes. In October, we reported on the growing interest in co-housing.

The severe shortage of affordable housing has had a significant impact on homelessness, and not only in the UK. In April, we highlighted a report which documented significant rises in the numbers of homeless people across Europe, including a 50% increase in homelessness in France, and a 75% increase in youth homelessness in Copenhagen.

One European country bucking this trend is Finland, and in July our blog looked at the country’s success in reducing long term homelessness and improving prevention services. Although the costs of Finland’s “housing first” approach are considerable, the results suggest that it’s paying off: the first seven years of the policy saw a 35% fall in long term homelessness.

Keeping mental health in mindA speech by the prime minister on mental health at the start of the year reflected growing concerns about how we deal with mental illness and its impacts. Our first blog post of 2017 looked at efforts to support people experiencing mental health problems at work. As well as highlighting that stress is one of the biggest causes of long-term absence in the workplace, the article provided examples of innovative approaches to mental illness by the construction and social work sectors.

A further post, in August pointed to the importance of joining up housing and mental health services, while in September we explored concerns that mobile phone use may have negative effects on the mental health of young people.

Going digitalAnother recurring theme in 2017 was the onward march of digital technologies. In June, we explored the reasons why the London Borough of Croydon was named Digital Council of the Year. New online services have generated very clear benefits: in-person visits to the council have been reduced by 30% each year, reducing staffing costs and increasing customer satisfaction from 57% to 98%.

Also in June, we reported on guidance published by the Royal Town Planning Institute on how planners can create an attractive environment for digital tech firms. Among its recommendations: planners should monitor the local economy to get a sense of what local growth industries are, and local authorities should employ someone to engage with local tech firms to find out how planning could help to better facilitate their growth.

Back to the future2018 is already shaping up as an important year in policy and practice. One important issue exercising both the public and private sectors is preparing for the General Data Protection Regulation. The Knowledge Exchange blog will be keeping an eye on this and many other issues, and the Idox Information Service, will be on hand to ensure our members are kept informed throughout 2018 and beyond.

Thank you for reading our blog posts in 2017, and we wish all of our readers a very Happy Christmas and a peaceful and prosperous New Year.

Follow us on Twitter to see what developments in public and social policy are interesting our research team.

In March, the London Borough of Croydon was named Digital Council of the Year at the Local Government Chronicle (LGC) Awards – a showcase event for sharing innovation and improvement in local government.

The LGC Award judges commended Croydon Council’s ‘no one gets left behind mantra’ and highlighted that they were impressed with:

“the breadth of its community empowerment and the range of digital activities, which had a material impact on changing people’s lives in different ways.”

Council leader Tony Newman said that he was ‘absolutely delighted’ that Croydon had been recognised as a digital leader in local government. However, he also congratulated the other shortlisted councils, explaining that:

“These awards are as much about sharing good practice as they are receiving the prizes, and not only will Croydon continue to share our learning with other councils, but we will also look at what others have done to see if we can improve still further.”

My Account

Introducing new online services has been a major success for Croydon Council. In-person visits to the council have been reduced by 30% each year, reducing staffing costs and increasing customer satisfaction from 57% to 98%.

My Account, a service which helps people access online council services (without having to re-enter their personal information) is just one example of this success. Launched in July 2013, the service now has 180,000 registered users – over half of Croydon’s population – and the My Croydon app has been downloaded almost 20,000 times.

My Account and My Croydon allow people to carry out a variety of tasks, including:

making council tax payments;

booking appointments;

reporting problems; and

registering for school admissions.

These services alone have saved the council £8m, and it’s expected that a further £1.2m of savings will be made in the coming year.

The solution used is ‘government certified’ and used by 30 out of 33 of London’s boroughs. This level of security is particularly important for local councils who often share sensitive data such as social care records.

Apart from the benefits to the environment, becoming paperless has saved the council £100,000 per year on storage costs alone.

Digital inclusion

To ensure everyone can participate in the digital age, Croydon Council partnered with Doteveryone (formerly GO-ON UK) to help people who struggle with technology or lack digital skills.

The Go ON Croydon project was introduced to support the 85,000 people in Croydon who do not have basic digital skills. Reaching out to organisations such as community and faith groups, this year-long programme set out to highlight and promote the council’s digital skills initiatives. One scheme promoted by the project was digital zones. Staffed by volunteer digital champions and located in banks or retail stores, these physical spaces provided places where people could go to have their questions answered and to improve their basic skills.

The Go ON Croydon project clearly made an impact, with digital skills levels in Croydon increasing from 70% to 79% within one year.

The council also made the decision to distribute 1,000 of its old computers to community groups, providing further opportunities for people to develop their digital skills.

TMRW

At the opposite end of the technology spectrum, the council has opened up a state of the art technology hub, known as TMRW, aimed at encouraging tech start-ups to locate to Croydon.

The hub, which was part funded by £927,940 from the Mayor of London’s Regeneration Fund, offers entrepreneurs and small businesses affordable co-working and office space, as well as other facilities such as event space, Gigabit internet services, and access to a 3D printing lab.

TMRW has been described as the UK’s official “fastest growing Tech City” and is home to a range of companies including one person entrepreneurs, developing virtual reality simulators and games, rockstar vloggers with over 1 million followers, and technology companies working with Samsung to develop the latest in connected car technologies.

Croydon iStreet

Recently, Croydon have partnered with The Architects’ Journal (AJ) to create a competition which encourages proposals for innovative technologies that will “transform the public realm”.

With a guide budget of £2 million, the proposal should help the council:

improve the area’s challenging post-war streetscape;

upgrade pedestrian movement and wayfinding; and

provide visitors with information about upcoming local events.

Councillor Alison Butler explains that Croydon will be undergoing significant redevelopment in the coming years, but highlights that this competition provides an opportunity to use technology to make Croydon a better place to live.

Final thoughts

To address a problem, you have to first admit that you have one. For most local councils, finding problems is not difficult: whether that’s substantial budget cuts, increased demand on services, a lack of digital skills, or outdated and antiquated processes and structures.

The answer to many of these problems is to introduce digital technologies and to encourage digital participation from local people, as well as council employees. This is what Croydon Council have been successful at doing over the past few years.

Local councils who are still at the beginning of their digital transformation journey should look to Croydon, to learn from their experience, and to see how they could become a successful digital council.

Follow us on Twitterto see what developments in public and social policy are interesting our research team. If you found this article interesting, you may also like to read our other digital articles.

Last December, research by Inside Housing magazine found that more than a third of English local authorities have already – or are planning to – set up their own housing companies.

The research showed that 98 out of 252 councils were considering the establishment of a private housing development company, or had already established one. That’s a significant increase on the seven housing companies that existed in 2014.

The factors driving council housing companies

The 2011 Localism Act gave local councils the powers to establish their own private companies, enabling them to borrow money more cheaply and avoid government-imposed restrictions. A mixture of motives is now prompting local authorities to enter the housebuilding business. Some see the new companies as sources of additional revenue. In addition, homes built by these private companies are not liable to right-to-buy. The Inside Housing research also found that a number of councils want to target income generated on tackling homelessness in their area.

At the same time, councils are facing funding pressures. “Local authority budgets are biting more and more,” Croydon Council’s director of development Colm Lacey explained to The Architects’ Journal in February.

“For example, in Croydon we’ve lost more than half of our central government budget since 2010. That’s a slow drip-drip of a loss of resource. Quite quickly, you come to realise that you need to throw something else in to meet the gap.”

Most companies are being established as wholly owned subsidiaries of councils, while some are solely management companies, letting stock built by their parent local authority. Many are funded by councils borrowing money from the Public Works Loan Board at low rates and then lending it to the company at a market rate.

Early adopters

The types of councils establishing housing companies are very varied, from rural to urban, and across the political spectrum. There is also a wide geographical spread, with a growing number located in London.

Among the councils pioneering their own housing companies is Newham Council in east London, which established its Red Door Ventures company in 2014 to provide homes at market rents, with a third of profits to be invested in social or affordable housing. The company’s properties are built on land bought from the council by the company using a local authority loan. Already, three developments have been built, and planning permission has been given for two more.

Another council-established private development company is Brick by Brick, set up by the London Borough of Croydon Council in 2016. The borough owns a significant amount of land, but has found that procuring agreements with developers has rarely generated benefits to the council in terms of increased land values or development returns. In an interview with Local Government Chronicle, Croydon’s Colm Lacey explained the reasoning behind Brick by Brick:

“The model allows the council as land-owner, sometime finance provider and sole shareholder to extract value from the core components of development activity – funding, building and selling. It maximises both affordable housing supply and return from development activity to Croydon residents, and allows the council to reinvest in core services.”

Learning from the pioneers: the upside and the downside

As more local authorities move towards establishing their own housing companies, they can learn from the experiences of early adopters, who can advise them on what to watch out for. This includes analysing council powers in relation to the establishment of a company, provision of funding, transfer of land, decision-making arrangements and potential conflicts of interest (for example in relation to planning).

At a time of acute housing shortages, the creation of house building companies takes on increased significance. Chartered Institute of Housing deputy chief executive Gavin Smart agrees that housing companies can help council deliver more homes, but warns:

“The downside is that the need to cross-subsidise might mean that their ability to produce new homes at genuinely affordable, social rents can be limited. It’s vital that they continue to prioritise building new homes at social rents.”

A rising tide or a drop in the ocean?

The trend towards council housing companies shows no sign of waning.

Cambridge City Council set up its housing company in January 2016, and the following May the company handed over its first rental property to new tenants.

The first of 128 new homes built by Gloriana – Thurrock Council’s housing company – will be completed this year in Tilbury. The development has been created to keep up with demand for homes from increasing numbers of people coming to work in the area, mainly in freight and retail.

Meridian Homestart is a company set up by the Royal Borough of Greenwich to offer high-quality homes for local working families to rent. These homes are let at 20% below local market rent levels in order to help working families who would otherwise find it hard to buy or rent on the open market.

A shortage of private accommodation has prompted Bracknell Forest Council to use its housing company to provide better and cheaper housing for homeless people.

At the moment, the contribution of council housing companies towards tackling the housing crisis is relatively small. Barking and Dagenham’s housing company, Reside, has so far delivered around 600 homes; while Blueprint, a joint venture between Nottingham Council and Igloo Regeneration, has completed 245 homes. That’s a drop in the ocean when compared to the House of Lords Economic Affairs Select Committee recommendation of 300,000 new-build homes each year.

Even so, housing companies have come a long way in a short time, and their rapid growth signals a much bigger long-term vision. As Sir Robin Wales, Mayor of Newham explains:

“We’re trying to correct 30 to 40 years of failure in the housing market, but it will take time.”

If you enjoyed this post, take a look at some of our other housing blog posts: